Hammer-blow steam trap



Apail 19, 1927. I c. H. THOMPSON HAMMER BLOW STEAM 'TRAP Filed May 6, 1924 M BMW l N V EN TOR fiiazafl T 150 1973010.

A TTORNEY Patented Apr. 19, 1927.

hairs!) STATES CHARLES H. THOMPSON, OF PHILADELPHEA, EENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNUB TO YARNALL- WARING COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA. PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Application filed May 6,

My invention relates to traps for the removal of water or other liquid from pressure lines carrying steam or other vapor.

The invention is an improvement upon the subject matter of an application liled December 17, 1920, by Lyle Gr. Chase, Serial Number 431,351, for steam trap.

A further purpose is to operate the discharge valves of a trap by a hammer blow and to make this hammer blow possible by lost motion in the operating member.

A further purpose is to give a single hammer blow to a plurality of ball valves simultaneously and equally eliective upon all.

A further purpose is to provide an intermittent discharge trap with better venting between the inlet and discharge compartments.

Further purposes will appear in the specification and in the claims.

1. have preferred to illustrate my inven-' tion by but one form thereof, selecting a form which is practical, etiicient and inexpensive, and which well illustrates the principles involved.

The figure is a vertical section of a trap embodying my invention.

Describing the structure shown in illustration and not in limitation The main or lower compartment 6, having inlet 7 and clean-out plug 8, contains within it the operating bucket S). The compartment is upwardly closed by a flange member 10 bolted fast to the upper flange 11 of the lower compartment by bolts 12.

The open tube 13, preferably integral with the flange member 10, extends downwardly into and to near the bottom of the bucket 9, and has its lower end it serrated to avoid possible closure against the bottom of the bucket.

The removable valve-plate 15 has its cen tral bore 16 registering with the open end of the tube 13 and the valve seats 17 are spaced circumferentially around the axis of the tube. Each valve seat lies within the circumferential raised rim 18 of a bushing 19.

The discharge passage 20 in the flange member 10 is open at 21 beneath the valve seats and is provided with outlet 22. The opening is plugged at 23. Either of these parts, 22 and 23, may be outlet and the other be plugged.

The valves 24 upon the seats 17 are of the HAMMER-BLOW STEAM TRAP.

1924. Serial No. 711,344.

usual ball type, returning from displacement automatically to their depressed seats. The top-shell surmounts the space around the valve-plate and valves and forms with the flange member 10 the valved discharge chamber 25.

A rod 26 is rigidly fastened at 27 to the bottom of the bucket and is guided axially of the tube 13 by spider guides 28 within the tube, permitting the bucket to rise and I fall while guiding it against lateral movement.

The valves are displaced, opening the trap to discharge, by a spreader 29, conveniently a ring wedge, carried at the upper end or the rod member 26. Prior to my invention this spreader 29 has been rigidly fastened to the end of the rod with the result that, with the sinking of the bucket the spreader ias not reliably engaged all of the balls at exactly the same instant and, partly for this reason, does not give a good hammer blow to the balls when it does engage them. 7

I have discovered that the wedge member operates much better if its fastening to the rod be loose laterally and longitudinally. Thus, in the figure, the wedge member has a bore 30 larger than the diameter of the pin 31 upon which it is mounted. It also has an axial length less than the distance between the shoulder and nut 33 respectively above and below the wedge. With this arrangement, when the bucket starts to lill and sink, the spreader finds a preliminary seat upon the balls exactly accommodating itself to their position to engage all ot them at once. It is subsequently struck by the lower side of the nut 33, transmitting the blow simultaneously and equally to all of the balls, which has proved to be of material advantage.

The bucket is protected from direct lateral flow of the stream from the inlet 7 by a suitable bathe 341 forming the inside wall of a downwardly directed inlet passage 35.

In the use of this, general type of trap I have discovered that operation is much improved by providing a vent 36 through the baffle 3% from the top of the inlet passage into the main compartment and an outlet vent 37 from the main compartment preferably into the tube 13 above the bucket and below the cover 10.

The screw stem 88 is provided with hand wheel 39 and packing gland 40. W hen screwed down it engages and depresses the upper end of the rod 26 to open the valves and to hold them open as long as desired. This feature per so does not term part ot the present invention.

In operation drainage from the steam lines enters the trap at the inlet pipe 7 rising until it overflows into the floating bucket 9. The bucket begins to sink as it fills and as it does so fills with a rush causing it to sink with a rush. [is the bucket starts to sink the wedge ring 29 seats upon and is supported by the ball valves to be a moment later given a hammer blow by the nut on the end of the stem 26. This blow acts equally upon each of the balls, and rolls the balls laterally from their seats opening the trap to discharge.

Steam pressure within the trap now iorces rapid discharge into and through the open notched end 14 of the central pipe 13 into the top shell and out through the uncovered ports 1'? into the discharge passage 19 and thence through pipe 21 to waste, emptying the bucket.

As the bucket empties it rises, floating upward, until the stem 26 hits the spreader member 29 from engagement wire the balls, when the balls roll back to place and stop the discharge, completing the cycle.

The vent 36 automatically preveins lccking of air or other vapor in the inlet passage 35 and the vent 37 automatically relieves air or vapor locking in the upper part of the lower compartment resulting in much better and smoother operation.

The loose fastening between the rod and wedge member permits the wedge member to exactly accommodate itself to the balls, and secures an opening action that is exactly the same and simultaneous at all of the balls, giving full ellect and instant con tinuous operation from the hammer blow delivered by the nut upon rod 26 to the spreader.

In View of my invention and disclosure,

less become evident to others skilled in the art, I of course intend to claim herein all such in so far as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a steam trap for intermittent discharge, a trap bucket, a compartment therefor, a plurality of independent discharge valves, a valve operating member common to all the valves and in simultaneous contact therewith, and a second member loosely connected with the first and operative to strike the first a hammer blow as the trap is filling to open the discharge valves.

2. In a steam trap for intermittent discharge, a trap bucket, a compartment thereloi, a plurality of independent discharge valves, a valve operating member common to all and in simultaneous contact therewith, and a second member loosely locked to the first and having play between it and the first, engaging the first member to open the valves as the trap is filling and lifting the first member to permit return of the valves as the trap is discharging.

3. In a steam trap for intermittent discharge, an inlet chamber, a discharge chamberthereabove, a floating bucket within the inlet chamber, an open tube between the chambers from within the bucket near the bottom thereol up into the discharge chamber, downwardly directed depressed discharge ports spaced around the upper end of the tube, a ball valve on each port, a wedge ring simultaneously engaging each ball and connections between the ring and bucket having play laterally and longitudinally, adapting the construction to depress the ring to spread the balls as the bucket fills and slnks and to subsequently lift the ring to permit return of the balls asthe bucket discharges and rises.

CHARLES H. THOMPSON. 

